I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on what they think are some of the best value neighborhoods in the city. Like what are the areas, in your opinion/experience, that are priced low for what you get?

Lately I've been wondering about Southwood, as an example. Established neighborhood with trees, inner-city-ish (i.e. reasonable commute to downtown), close to transit and other amenities, schools seem ok-ish based on Fraser Institute, good proximity to Fish Creek park, Heritage Park, the Glenmore Reservoir. And prices seem to be generally under $550,000 for a single family home.

Southwood doesn't seem, to me, to be drastically different than a Brentwood or a Glendale type community in terms of access to downtown, transit, schools, age of homes, etc. But Southwood seems to be consistently cheaper.

We've been passively house hunting for a few months now, mostly in the NW. Hard to say which area has the best value when my wife and I can't even decide which house has better value. It will depend on each individual as to which features of a home or neighbourhood is most important to them.
From my own very personal (and likely biased) view, there seems to be some really good value in MacEwen Glen, Sandstone, Hidden Valley and North Haven for smaller type homes (under $500k and, say, 1800 sq ft). For larger homes (say, over 2400 sq ft), I see better value in Hawkwood and Evanston.

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Take any community that is considered inner city and bump to the next community.

You mention Southwood however Haysboro is even more inner city with similar pricing.

Lakeview is amazing value IMO simply due to the fact one can be on nearly any major roadway in the city in under 5 minutes.

Killarney is great value when looking at infills as the same home on the east side of crowchild sells for significantly more.

Renfrew is still amazing value for its proximity to downtown and bumping out to Tuxedo brings amazing "inner city" value.

Mayland Heights is a great community however the airport zoning restrictions are causing a stir so be cautious / work with a realtor who knows about this

Riverbend is very affordable for the size of home and proximity to downtown.

The Brentwoods, Charleswoods, etc remind me of the Lake Bonavistas of the south. Location is good but not great if inner city is the key. At the end of the day, demand drives price and there is always demand in these areas.

I owned a home in southwood for 6 years, it is a great community. It was a great place to live, I would never have left but unfortunately our house could not be renovated to suit our needs. My only advice if you choose to buy there would be to look for a place on the west side of elbow dr and in closer proximity to southland dr than Anderson Rd. As Travis mentioned Haysboro is a little closer to downtown and very similarly priced, I also found it to be much quieter. Also avoid any homes with pine trees(or get rid of them ASAP) as these can and have caused some serious sewage and foundation issues for many homes in the area.

It's too bad you weren't looking last year when we had our place listed in what was a terrible seller's market lol. If you don't already have a realtor, I highly recommend Travis, I can't say enough good things about how hard he worked to sell our old place and find our new home. He truly works for his clients, where as our previous realtor only seemed to be concerned with making their commission.

Lake Bonavista is a great neighborhood but I would not categorize it as great value. It's expensive because it's highly desirable.

I'm more interested in the neighborhoods people think are flying under the radar, and are priced accordingly.

Yeah, Peanut is right. The physical house you get in LB is hard to reconcile against the price. The guys that live in LB that have it made are the super wealthy ones living in pimp houses. For the average Joe, you're going to be in a house way worse than what you'd have for the same money in most other neighbourhoods. Of course, you get the lake, the schools, the C-train, Avenida, Safeway, Lakehouse, Brewster's, etc. Plus you're bordered by Trico Centre, Southcentre Mall, and Fish Creek Park, so the amenities can't be beat. Amazing access, too. Good value? Probably not. Best lifestyle? Without any shred of doubt (objectively speaking). The closest you can come if you didn't want LB is...

Quote:

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Top neighbourhoods with great value, in my opinion, are Ramsay, Inglewood and I also think Lakeview. Parkland.

...Parkland. What a rad neighbourhood that is. I don't know about the prices there, but if calgarywinning is suggesting they're affordable then that is awesome because it is so nice. I ride my bike along that ridge above Fish Creek all the time and I love it. And Park 96 is cool, too.

Yeah, Peanut is right. The physical house you get in LB is hard to reconcile against the price. The guys that live in LB that have it made are the super wealthy ones living in pimp houses. For the average Joe, you're going to be in a house way worse than what you'd have for the same money in most other neighbourhoods. Of course, you get the lake, the schools, the C-train, Avenida, Safeway, Lakehouse, Brewster's, etc. Plus you're bordered by Trico Centre, Southcentre Mall, and Fish Creek Park, so the amenities can't be beat. Amazing access, too. Good value? Probably not. Best lifestyle? Without any shred of doubt (objectively speaking). The closest you can come if you didn't want LB is...

Good value depends when you buy. if you bought at the right time LB is great value. If you then build a little sweat equity...it becomes even better. You can't change a location, but you can change the home. A lot of homes in LB are bought by people who intend to work on and upgrade the home, the last year or so has been surprising. Listings just don't not last that long here and I am surprised how much people are paying for the new reno type condition houses.

One thing you missed is the downtown access. Its 15 minutes to a sweet parking spot near the dome. I would not consider it a suburb, it's more of a "near city" location.